Wedding DIY: Anniversary books & hanger sneak peak

Are you sick of DIY yet? No? Hope not... because as I was telling a co-worker, I just keep looking at Pinterest not because there is anything else I NEED to make, but because I want to keep crafting. I'm going to wind up with 100 totally unecessary DIYs for this wedding and I'm fine with it. :)

 

Today we're talking about anniversary books. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved it. The couple had a book at each table that corresponded with each table number that requested a note for that years' anniversary.

 

I love the idea of getting to relive a little bit of your wedding, and have a little bit of a surprise of seeing what people wrote every year for the next 22 or 23 years (depending on the number of tables we have!)

 

So my hangover and I went to Michaels on Sunday to purchase some supplies.

 

I got 11 pages of scrapbook paper (at 6 for $1!) in a tan color with a bit of texture to it.

 

I then cut each piece in half, so, 2 books per page.

 

M had a drawing book/diary thing his mom had bought him that I knew he'd never use, so I've been using the pages for wedding crafts. It's a nice tan antique color. I pulled out 3 pages, trimmed them so the ends were neat, and folded them in half. 12 "pages" (front and back) for each book total. Since we're having 10 to a table I figure that was good.

 

I then trimmed the scrapbook paper so pages were about an inch inside each cover, like so:

 

Again, trying to keep these projects as economic as posisble, so instead of buying a hole punch (like, $7. Who knew hole punches were pricey..)

 

I folded each book and cut 2 triangle notches for the "binding"

I then fed some twine I had purchased through each hole, so there was a strip in the center of the book and both ends poked out the binding of the book. For a little extra reinforcement, I laid some hot glue down the binding and squeezed.

I made 6 of them last night while watching Sex and the City.

 

 

Here they are without the writing on the front: 

 

I then played around with how I wanted to write out the note. I had gotten some "marquee" stickers, I guess you'd call them, in the scrapbooking section.

 

Here is one of the final books!



I like how they turned out.

I wish I had a LITTLE "cooler" handwriting, but I'm trying to get over the fact that my own handwriting looks weird to me. haha.

 

I could have printed it on a computer, but I like the handwritten look.

 

Overall cost:

$2.00 for the scrapbook paper

$2.99 for the white stickers

$2.00 for the twine

 

I already had the "filler" pages and hot glue. So, about $7 total for 22 books!

 

In other DIY news, I was apathetic about getting the "bride"/bridesmaid hangers with names. Mostly, I wasn't paying $25+ for a hanger that I'm really only getting for a cute photo op.. then I saw on Pinterest a girl who DIYed it.

 

So, yesterday I headed out to Home Depot to look at wire. The size wire (12 guage) that it looked like the etsy people used was IMPOSSIBLE to bend. I gave up and went to Michaels to get anniversary book supplies.

 

That's when I found 12 guage floral wire in silver. I picked it up and it bent SUPER easy. This must be what they use, or at least, it'd work for me! So I bought one roll to test it out. The first 6 inches were a fail as I got the hang of twisting it.

 

I decided "Mrs. _ _ _ _ _ _ _" (the length of M's last name) would be WAY to much to cram into a hanger's length. So I settled on "bride" and started bending.

 

I then scoured the house for ONE wooden hanger, and lucked out in the last closet. I broke off the wooden dowel that ran along the bottom, and used a drill to make 2 small holes on either side to put the wire in. I shot some hot glue into each hole, and stuck the wires in. For added strength I put more glue outside the hole around the wire.

 

Here's the finished product via a crappy iphone pic.

(the "d" looks way more janky here then it is in real life. I tweaked it a bit too after this photo.)

annnd ta-da! Pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

I had the hanger, and the wire was $3 or so. Much more cost effective than etsy, for me!

 

I don't think many of my bridesmaids read this religiously, if at all, but I've made 2 more wires with 2 of their names so far (Tori and Molly.. notice, I'm leaving Natalie--the harder names-- until I have more practice! haha). I am going to buy more wire for the other 4..and these will be a part of their gifts!

 

weeeeeeee for wedding crafts!

 

(also, I'm going to be unloading/selling as much of this stuff as I can after the wedding -- at least the non-personalized, non-gift stuff, like the "thank you" banner and the table runners... SO, if you know of anyone who will be looking come next October, keep me in mind ;-) )

 

-Kelly